Made for Another World

 

Doesn’t it sometimes feel like the way things are handled in our greater world of politics just isn’t cutting it? The endless and vicious circle of talking points, ad hominin attacks and a victory at all costs mindset that hurts anyone in the way. This has been part of the steady polarization we see in the culture around us in the West, particularly in the United States.

CS Lewis famously wrote, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

This fits perfectly in line with the message given to not just the Christians of the early church in the New Testament, but also to the natural nation of Israel. Their way of life commanded by God was meant to distinguish themselves in the culture around them as a people doing things differently. From having no standing military, a king who was a humble servant of the people, a priesthood with no means of amassing political or economic power, and a redemption and jubilee system that ensured that even the disadvantaged were able to maintain and provide for themselves.

What does this maybe look like in our day? We feel uneasy or unsettled that the answers our political systems are providing don’t seem to fit the mold we see in Scripture. We want to see not just

Then throw in the mix our fallen humanities insatiable desire for power. In Scripture (both Old and New Testament) this desire is often personified with the city of Babylon. A place of idolatry, power and wealth that conquered and commanded other nations. This desire for power is something every human is susceptible to.

When Christ came an inaugurated the “Kingdom of Heaven”, things would never be the same. The systems of this world are turned upside down with how things would be run. Think of the Sermon on the Mount as the constitution or founding document, where we see how citizens of this Kingdom are to represent and follow the King in a new way of life.

Now, back to that Lewis quote. When he talks about another world, this is not something being said about just living and being in heaven. That is a myopic and shallow understanding of God’s Kingdom. That different world is what God intends for His creation. A Kingdom, a people transformed and changed by Him who make a world that is known by its love and different way of doing things, not enslaved to the grasping for power that we see, attempt and experience here and now.  

The Kingdom of Heaven has been inaugurated, and is waiting to be consummated. It is not finalized, but it is working. Slowly and surely through history it is growing and changing the world around it bringing us back to how God intended it.